Independent Educational Evaluations

Of all the areas in which I practice, my IEE assessments are perhaps the most important to me. What is interesting is that you cannot sign up to become an IEE assessor, a school district has to decide to use you. Whenever I receive a this type of call, I always encourage that parent have a chance to contact me and ask questions about my background, experience, and methodologies that may be used to assess their child.

But doesn't the school district really have me "in their pocket?" After all, they're footing the bill. How can an impartial evaluation really occur?

I chose to write about this simply because it comes up all the time. I am not a school employee, but a private clinician who has been retained to provide an impartial and fairly balanced view of a student's functioning in the areas requested. It's just like a parent paying for their child's therapy. I explain that, just because they foot the bill, it doesn't mean that they are entitled to learn about everything their 16 year elects to tell me. Similarly, families may tell me pieces of information they feel will help me better understand a situation, but ask that I do not put it into my reports. I am bound to honor such requests, although I will sometimes try to encourage parents to disclose it because I think the information may be helpful to their child. But, ultimately it's the parent's decision.

If I worried that I may say or write something that a district didn't like, I couldn't do effective IEE evaluations. I consider it an honor when I am selected function in this role. It usually means that a child's situation is more complex and this ties nicely into my background and training, particularly my years at Boston Children's Hospital, where I remain grateful to my supervisors who mentored me in such a comprehensive and caring environment.

How do I feel about schools?

I think schools have a pretty tough job to do in helping to teach kids to become thoughtful, knowledgeable, and considerable adults. Anyone out there want to work as a teacher? Me neither. I think most teachers are saints. Sure there are some who are too harsh, use techniques from the 1960's, and probably might be better suited for another career. But, the majority of teachers I run into care about kids and go the extra mile to help them. Having said that, I feel I have an obligation to both be respectful to their profession, but if I conduct an assessment and come to the conclusion a different way of working with a child or different services would be helpful, that's going to appear in my report.

To learn more about how I conduct evaluations, click on the appropriate link below:

• Psychological Assessment
• Functional Behavior Analysis Assessments